La Apulia is a region in southern Italy that consists of 4 051 846 of inhabitants. It is bordered by Molise to the northwest, Campania and Basilicata to the west, and is washed by the Adriatic Sea to the east and north and the Ionian Sea to the south. The capital city is Bari, while the provinces are Foggia, Barletta-Andria-Trani, Taranto, Brindisi and Lecce. One of the subregions of Puglia, the southernmost one, constitutes the Salento, also called the Salento peninsula, which constitutes the heel of the Italian boot.

The historical toponym Apulia (Latin outcome of the Greek Ἰαπυγία, Japigia) derives from the ancient population of the Apuli, who in pre-Roman times inhabited the north-central part of the region, while to the south the related people of the Messapi were settled. According to a widespread pseudo-etymology, however, Apulia would derive from Apluvia, meaning land without rain. Until before the establishment of regions, the name le Puglie was also indifferently used to designate present-day Apulia.

Apulia is the easternmost region in Italy (the easternmost location is Punta Palascìa) and is also one of the Italian regions with the greatest coastal development: the coastline stretches for about 865 km, alternating between rocky stretches (as on the Gargano), cliffs (rocky coastlines with sheer walls), and also sandy shorelines (as along the Gulf of Taranto).

The Apulian hilly territory includes the Murge and the Salento greenhouses. The Murgia, or the Murge, is an extensive Apulian subregion, corresponding to a rectangular-shaped karst plateau largely included in the provinces of Bari and Barletta-Andria-Trani, but also extending southward into the provinces of Taranto and Brindisi. It is subdivided into Alta Murgia, which represents the highest and rockiest part, consisting mainly of mixed forest and where vegetation is rather poor, and Bassa Murgia, where the land is more fertile and covered mainly with olive groves. Salento greenhouses, on the other hand, are a hilly feature found in the southern part of the province of Lecce.

Throughout Apulia the climate is typically Mediterranean: coastal and lowland areas have hot, windy, dry summers and mild winters; snowfall is not uncommon on the plains. Precipitation, concentrated during late autumn and winter, is scarce and mostly of a rainy nature in the plains, while on the Murge plateau snowfall is frequent in cold currents from the east.

Economically, Apulia has managed to combine its traditions, history and production vocations withinnovation and technology. In fact, it has achieved good levels of specialization in many industrial sectors. Some policies, with the aim of developing innovation processes together with a wide availability of investment incentives, have made the local production system grow and attracted more than 40 international industrial groups belonging to the aerospace, automotive, chemical and ICT sectors. In the area of research, there are 5,000 researchers, 103,000 university students and nearly 15,000 new graduates a year. Specialized scientific expertise is divided into several interdisciplinary areas: biology, ICT and nanotechnology sectors, which have contributed to the birth and consolidation of three technological districts: biotechnology, high technology and mechatronics.

Among southern Italian regions, Puglia’s economy has performed best in recent years, with GDP growth of +1.8 percent, mainly due to the development of the tertiary sector andindustry, but also with a decline in the agricultural sector.

The strategic geographical position, thanks to the recent prominence of Eastern and Mediterranean economies, the discrete infrastructure network and the solidity of cultural relations and trade with the Mediterranean basin make Apulia a region with high economic potential.

In Apulia,agriculture has always played a prominent role in the economic context. Today, it is an absolutely intensive and modern agriculture, which allows the region to be at the top in Italy for the production of many products, such as durum wheat and tomatoes, as well as the production of olive oil, which with its estimated 50 million olive trees puts Puglia in first place, as well as table grapes. It also holds important roles in lettuce, artichoke, fennel, cabbage, celery and oats. An ancient supremacy was that of Apulian almond production, unfortunately now waning despite attempts to establish modern almond groves on the California model, while successful fruit crops include peach and kiwi. One of the inconveniences of Apulian agriculture is the scarcity of water, so much so that if droughts were not so widespread, much more could be produced in this region without the problems of poor soil irrigation.

Special mention should be made of the tourism sector, which has experienced exponential growth in recent years. This is mainly national tourism, seasonal (mainly during the summer season) and concentrated mainly in the areas of the Salento and Gargano. The region was named Best Value Travel Region in the World by National Geographic. In 2009, arrivals were about 3 million and produced more than 12 million presences. The average stay of Italian tourists in Puglia is 4 days, a value that has remained constant since last year. The greatest influx of Italian and foreign tourists-both in terms of arrivals and presences-occurs in the Gargano area, while the second province to attract a substantial share of tourists is Lecce where, in 2009, 813,524 arrivals were recorded against 4,180,888 presences.